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YE MAY 
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CQEOUGHT DEPOSm 



OTHER BOOKS BY DR. KEPPEL 

THE BOOK OF REVELATION NOT A 
MYSTERY 

THAT YE MAY KNOW 



That Ye May Believe 

The Argument of Saint John's Gospel 



By 
DAVID KEPPEL 




THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN 
NEW YORK CINCINNATI 



** 



4fi>4? 



Copyright, 1922, by 
DAVID KEPPEL 



Printed in the United States of America 



The Bible text used in this volume is taken from the American 
Standard Edition of the Revised Bible, copyright, 1901, by Thomas 
Nelson & Sons, and is used by permission. 



SEP 

©CI.AG83154 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

THREE JOHNS 

mt brother 

The Reverend John Hadden Keppel 

preacher op the gospel in canada and the 

united states, who was the first to 

encourage me in these studies; 

my father 

John Keppel 

of tullow, ireland, and later of the united 

states, an earnest student of holy 

scripture, including john's gospel; 

my grandfather 

The Reverend John Hadden 

one of john wesley's preachers in Ireland, 

himself a son of thunder and a 

beloved disciple. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Prefatory Note 9 

I. The Testimony of John the 

Baptist to Jesus 11 

II. The First Disciples 17 

III. The First Miracle 22 

IV. Jesus and Nicodemus 26 

V. Jacob's Well and Beyond 30 

VI. The Lord of the Sabbath 35 

VII. The Bread of Life 40 

VIII. Jangling Voices 47 

IX. "Can a Devbl Open the Eyes of 

the Blind?" 53 

X. Bethany 60 

XL Jerusalem 65 

XII. The Upper Room 70 

XIII. The Battle of Calvary 76 

XIV. John Sums Up 81 



PREFATORY NOTE 

In the Gospel of Saint John there are 
two things of importance, the substance 
of the book and the object for which it 
was written. In the substance of the 
book we have a nearly unique account 
of the works and words of Jesus, with 
the evangelist's profound deductions. 

With the substance of the book the 
reader is apt to become quite familiar. 
He reads John's Gospel, as he reads the 
synoptic Gospels, for the sacred story 
and the lessons that lie upon the sur- 
face. 

But the average reader is exceedingly 
apt to miss the object of the book. If 
we are not greatly mistaken, very few 
readers can tell offhand why John wrote 
the book at all. 

Yet Saint John is careful to state the 

object of his book. "These things are 

written, that ye may believe that Jesus 

is the Christ, the Son of God; and that 

9 



10 PREFATORY NOTE 

believing ye may have life through his 
name" (20. 31) ; just as near the close 
of his First Epistle, he states the object 
of that little tract, "These things have I 
written unto you, that ye may know 
that ye have eternal life, even unto you 
that believe on the name of the Son of 
God" (1 John 5. 13). 

Thus the Epistle completes the argu- 
ment of the Gospel. In a former trea- 
tise entitled That Ye May Know we at- 
tempted to trace the line of argument 
of the Epistle; in the present treatise 
we attempt to do the same for the Gos- 
pel, by tracing John's argument, prov- 
ing that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the 
Son of God, and the grounds given for 
such belief in Christ that we may have 
lif e through his name. 

Trusting that the purpose of the 
Gospel of John may be realized by 
many readers, that they may be led to 
accept Jesus as the Christ, the Son of 
God, and find eternal life through faith 
in his name, this little book is sent forth. 



THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN 
THE BAPTIST TO JESUS 

(John 1. 19-36; 3. 22-36.) 

In bringing his Gospel to a close 
Saint John tells us why he wrote it: 
"These things are written, that ye may 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God ; and that believing ye may have 
life through his name" (John 20. 31). 

The author never loses sight of this 
purpose; and each successive section of 
his book contains a direct argument, 
usually based upon some sign shown by 
the Lord Jesus, and bearing upon the 
purpose just stated. 

To present these arguments, culmi- 
nating in the proof that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God, in a series of 
brief and helpful chapters, is the pur- 
pose of the writer. 
11 



12 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

First we consider the testimony of 
John the Baptist to Jesus. 

A wonderful man was John the Bap- 
tist. One of the few whose career was 
foretold by the earlier prophets, he was 
accepted by the mass of the people as a 
prophet, and declared by our Lord to 
be more than a prophet. 

His testimony to Jesus falls into two 
parts: his earlier testimony given at 
Bethany beyond Jordan, when he first 
met Jesus ; his later testimony given at 
iEnon near to Salim, some months 
later. 

In his earlier testimony he says that 
He who had sent him to baptize had 
given him a sign: "Upon whomsoever 
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, 
and abiding upon him, the same is he 
that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit" (1. 
33). 

Jesus came to his baptism a stranger ; 
but on him was the sign fulfilled. "I 
have beheld the Spirit descending as a 
dove out of heaven ; and it abode on him. 



THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN 13 

. . . And I have seen, and have borne 
witness that this is the Son of God" (1. 
32, 34). 

Such was the Baptist's testimony to 
Jesus. Over and again he repeats it. 
To the delegates from the Pharisees he 
says : "In the midst of you standeth one 
whom ye know not, even he that cometh 
after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am 
not worthy to unloose" (26, 27) . 

To those who attended his ministry 
he said, pointing to Jesus as he walked, 
"Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh 
away the sin of the world!" (29) and 
to two of his disciples, one of them 
Andrew, the other probably John the 
author of the Gospel, he repeated: "Be- 
hold, the Lamb of God!" (36). 

His later testimony is recorded after 
Jesus had been exercising his ministry 
for some time, and was followed by 
multitudes of the common people, but 
despised and rejected by their rulers. 

Being driven out of Jerusalem, he 
went with his disciples into the open 



14 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

country of northern Judaea, "and there 
he tarried with them, and baptized." 
At the same time John the Baptist was 
baptizing at "iEnon, near to Salim." 
Thus the two masters were exercising 
similar functions not many miles apart 
(3.23). 

Jesus had the crowd ; and a discussion 
which arose between the disciples of 
John and a Jew, who may have been an 
adherent of Jesus, about purifying, 
brought the not unnatural jealousy of 
John's disciples to a crisis. 

The disciples carried the case to their 
master. "Rabbi," said they, "he that 
was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom 
thou hast borne witness, behold, the 
same baptizeth, and all men come to 
him" (3.26). 

Note his noble and utterly unselfish 
answer: "A man can receive nothing, 
except it have been given him from 
heaven. Ye yourselves bear me wit- 
ness, that I said, I am not the Christ, 
but, that I am sent before him. . . . 



THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN 15 

He must increase, but I must decrease" 
(27-30). 

It is not easy to decide whether the 
following testimony is from the Baptist, 
or from the evangelist; but it is to the 
effect that Jesus is as superior to John 
as the bridegroom to the groomsman, as 
the heavenly to the earthy, as the son to 
the servant. 

Perhaps the most important point in 
this testimony to Jesus by John the 
Baptist is that it is given by the duly 
authorized and foretold "messenger of 
the covenant" (Mai. 3. 1). Verily, in 
assuming his place as the "great shep- 
herd of the sheep" Jesus entered by the 
door into the sheep fold, and did not 
climb up some other way! "To him the 
porter," who is none other than this 
same messenger, "openeth." He 
came in the regular, God-appointed 
way, as foretold by the holy prophets. 

Another point worthy of notice is 
that the Baptist announces him, not 
as the Christ, or Messiah only, but as 



16 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

the Son of God. To us both terms con- 
vey about the same idea; but not so to 
the Jews of Jesus' day. There were 
thousands then who were willing to ac- 
cept a purely human Messiah ; but very 
few who grasped the idea that God 
would send a divine being, "God mani- 
fest in the flesh," as his Christ, his 
anointed representative, his Son. In 
the discussions in John's Gospel we find 
the opposing Jews not unwilling to con- 
sider our Lord's claim to be the Christ ; 
but the moment he claims sonship to 
God they pick up stones to stone him as 
a blasphemer; and in his trial before 
Pilate, they claimed: "We have a law, 
and by our law he ought to die, because 
he made himself the Son of God." Ac- 
quitted on every other count, on this he 
was crucified. Bear in mind then, that 
Jesus' claim to be the Son of God was 
no afterthought, but that this first wit- 
ness said: "And I have seen, and have 
borne witness that this is the Son of 
God" (1.34). 



II 

THE FIRST DISCIPLES 
(John 1. 37-51.) 

They met Jesus as strangers. He 
had done no miracle and spoken no 
word to impress them. They are first 
attracted to him by the word of the 
Baptist, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" 
(1.36). 

"And the two disciples," one An- 
drew, the other perhaps John, "heard 
him speak, and they followed Jesus. 
And Jesus turned, and beheld them fol- 
lowing, and saith unto them, What seek 
ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, 
. . . where abidest thou? He saith 
unto them, Come, and ye shall see. 
They came therefore and saw where he 
abode; and they abode with him that 
day" (37-39). 

How commonplace! The disciples 
17 



18 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

were very ordinary young men from the 
humbler walks in life, fishermen from 
Lake Tiberias, and he whom they called 
"Rabbi" was untaught in the schools, 
had done or said nothing remarkable, 
was unknown in the nation. Yet prob- 
ably both of them accepted him at once 
as the Messiah. 

"One of the two that heard John 
speak, and followed him, was Andrew, 
Simon Peter's brother. He findeth first 
his own brother Simon, and saith unto 
him, We have found the Messiah. . . . 
He brought him unto Jesus. Jesus 
looked upon him, and said, Thou art 
Simon, the son of John, thou shalt be 
called Cephas," Peter, "the Rock." 
Jesus saw that beneath the rather shifty 
exterior was the foundation of rock. 

To learn the effect of this interview 
upon Peter we must pass over several 
weeks. Jesus had become famous. His 
miracles had become more and more 
wonderful, so that men spoke of making 
him king. His teaching, however, be- 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES 19 

came more spiritual, and therefore less 
acceptable to the worldly. Many of his 
disciples went back and walked no more 
with him. "Would ye also go away?" 
said he to the twelve, of whom Peter 
had become leader. Then Peter, granite 
rock that he was, made answer: "Lord, 
to whom shall we go? thou hast the 
words of eternal life. And we have be- 
lieved and know that thou art the Holy 
One of God" (John 6. 66-69) . 

But, returning to John the Baptist's 
encampment, we learn that "on the 
morrow he," Jesus, "was minded to go 
forth into Galilee, and he findeth 
Philip : and Jesus saith unto him, Fol- 
low me" (1. 43) . With these two words 
Philip is won to faith in the Messiahship 
of Jesus. 

Even more remarkable is the case of 
Nathanael. "Philip findeth Nathanael, 
and saith unto him, We have found him, 
of whom Moses in the law, and the 
prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the 
son of Joseph." Nathanael, without 



20 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

guile indeed, but not without prejudice, 
answers, "Can any good thing come out 
of Nazareth?" And Philip, knowing 
the compelling influence of the very- 
presence of Jesus upon himself, says, 
"Come and see." Jesus, seeing Na- 
thanael approaching, exclaimed, "Be- 
hold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no 
guile!" Nathanael, surprised but not 
convinced, knew his own portrait as 
sketched by the Master. "Whence 
knowest thou me?" he asked. "Before 
Philip called thee," said Jesus, "when 
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw 
thee." Who, then, is this prophet of the 
clear eye, who sees a man under his own 
fig tree alone with God? The doubts 
of the Israelite in whom was no guile 
vanish, and he exclaims ,"Thou art the 
Son of God; thou art King of Israel!" 
(45-49). 

If we had been in that group, and had 
marked this mastery of men by an un- 
known carpenter, from an obscure vil- 
lage, without the training of the schools, 



THE FIRST DISCIPLES 



21 



or any other extraneous help, would we 
not have taken our place with them, be- 
lieving that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God? 



Ill 

THE FIRST MIRACLE 
(John 2. 1-11.) 

We have now reached a turning- 
point in our Lord's ministry. Up to 
this time he had used only natural 
means in his appeal to men ; now he uses 
the supernatural. Even then he would 
have preferred not to have done so. 
His hour was not yet come. But, like 
an affectionate son, he yields to the re- 
quest of his mother. 

We are familiar with the story of the 
marriage in Cana, as recorded in the 
second chapter of John; the wedding 
feast, the invitation of Jesus and his dis- 
ciples, the failing of the supply of wine, 
the mother's request, Jesus' hesitation 
but consent to do what his mother re- 
quested, the water turned into good 
wine, the effect of the miracle on the 



THE FIRST MIRACLE 23 

ruler of the feast, the servants, and the 
disciples. 

Our Lord's hesitation to use his 
miraculous power is what might be ex- 
pected. He had utterly refused to turn 
the stones of the wilderness into bread; 
shall he now consent to turn water into 
wine? 

Well, he might do for his mother 
what he refused to do for the devil. 
The occasion was not ideal, neverthe- 
less, while obliging the mother who had 
already suffered so much for him, he 
could give his disciples, whom he is so 
soon to call to leave all and follow him, 
proof that he is not only able to give 
them "day by day their daily bread," 
but if need be, to furnish even the lux- 
uries of life also. 

On the wedding guests the miracle 
seems to have had little favorable effect. 
It was to practically the same people 
that he said a little later, "Except ye see 
signs and wonders, ye will in no wise 
believe" (4. 48). 



24 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

The ruler of the feast, the best man, 
had his little joke on the bridegroom. 
Calling him, he said something like this : 
"Well, you are a great provider! Folks 
generally put on their best wine first; 
and when the guests have drunk freely, 
then that which is not so good. But you 
have kept the good wine until now!" 

"The servants that had drawn the 
water knew" (2. 9). How often it is 
that those in humble life grasp the truth 
which their social superiors altogether 
miss. They knew; but it is doubtful 
whether they took the obvious step of 
believing that Jesus was the Christ, the 
Son of God, or that any of them en- 
rolled as disciples of Jesus. 

But those who had already accepted 
Jesus as the Christ, and thus were in 
condition to profit by it, were lifted by 
this miracle to a higher plane. They 
saw that their new friend and Master 
exercised the very same power by which 
the God of nature, in the alembic of the 
vine, turns the water of the rain and 



THE FIRST MIRACLE 25 

dew into the sweet juices of the grape. 
Thus Jesus "manifested his glory; and 
his disciples believed on him" (2. 11). 

One other lesson we should not miss : 
that this wonderful Jesus was man. 
Yonder matron bustling about enter- 
taining the guests is his mother. He sits 
among the guests, eating and drinking, 
sharing and encouraging their festivi- 
ties, beautifying and adorning the insti- 
tution of marriage, with his presence, 
and the first miracle that he wrought. 
Whatever more and greater he may be, 
he is "The man Christ Jesus." 

"We have not a high priest that can- 
not be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities; but one that hath been 
tempted on all points like as we are, yet 
without sin." "In that he himself hath 
suffered being tempted, he is able to 
succor them that are tempted" (Heb. 
4. 15 and 2. 18). 



IV 
JESUS AND NICODEMUS 

(John 3. 1-16.) 

After a short visit to Galilee, Jesus 
came to old, conservative Jerusalem. 
It was Passover time, and everything 
was at fever heat — great ceremonials, 
vast crowds, gross abuses. 

One of these abuses was, to use Jesus' 
own phrase, making his "Father's house 
a house of merchandise" (2. 16). 
Later, according to another evangelist, 
Jesus characterized it as making it a 
"den of robbers" (Matt. 21. 13). 

Jesus, who in the meantime had been 
performing some wonderful miracles, 
and had, as we are aware, been an- 
nounced as Messiah by John the Bap- 
tist, leaped at once into the exercise of 
the functions of the Messiahship, by ex- 
pelling the profane and dishonest swarm 
86 



JESUS AND NICODEMUS 27 

of buyers and sellers from the Temple. 
This he had a right to do, if, indeed, he 
was the Messiah. 

The authorities were swift to chal- 
lenge his right: they asked, "What sign 
showest thou unto us, seeing that thou 
doest these things?" (2. 18) . 

Public opinion was divided; some, 
with the majority of the rulers, demand- 
ing greater signs ; others holding that no 
man could do such miracles as Jesus was 
doing save with the approval and help 
of God. 

Of the latter class was Nicodemus, a 
candid, open-minded but timid man, a 
ruler and teacher of Israel, who made 
the memorable night visit to Jesus. 

It is not at all likely that we have 
anything more than the high lights of 
the conversation recorded, since all that 
Saint John gives us may easily be re- 
peated in two or three minutes, a period 
altogether too brief for such a momen- 
tous interview. This accounts for an 
apparent lack of connection, for in- 



28 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

stance, between Nicodemus' courteous 
address and the seemingly brusque re- 
ply of Jesus. 

How many great truths are given in 
this short interview 1 God and the 
kingdom of God; the new birth by 
which alone that kingdom can be en- 
tered, or seen; the spiritual nature of 
the new birth, and its source in the 
Spirit of God; the depravity of that 
which is born of the flesh ; the spiritual 
birth, invisible and mysterious as the 
wind, but no less real; Jesus himself, 
speaking what he knew and bearing 
witness of what he had seen, descending 
out of heaven, ascending into heaven, 
nay, even then in heaven, Son of man 
and Son of God; atonement through the 
lifting up of the Son of man, and eter- 
nal life through faith in his name (John 
3. 1-15). 

Throughout the interview we are 
struck by what we may call the supe- 
riority of the Lord Jesus. Nicodemus 
high in position, rich, learned, influen- 



JESUS AND NICODEMUS 29 

tial; Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth, 
poor, despised and rejected of men; yet 
everywhere Nicodemus is the puzzled 
learner, and Jesus the Teacher sent 
from God. 

It is not our purpose to elaborate 
these capital doctrines uttered by our 
Lord, but simply to ask ourselves, If we 
had been present at that interview, as 
we believe John was, what would have 
been its bearing upon our belief in 
Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, 
and our possession of eternal life 
through faith in his name? 

Do we not find fitting answer in the 
golden words with which John sums up 
his impressions, "For God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth on him 
should not perish, but have eternal 
life"? 



V 
JACOB'S WELL AND BEYOND 

(John 4. 4-54.) 

Withdrawing from Judasa, and 
thus removing all occasion of friction 
with the adherents of John the Baptist, 
Jesus and his disciples took the north- 
ward road leading through Samaria to 
Galilee. 

Weary with his long tramp, Jesus sat 
thus on the well. There was probably 
not a door in all Samaria that would 
open to him, and his only shelter from 
the blazing sun was the canopy over the 
well. The disciples have gone to the vil- 
lage to buy food, and Jesus is alone. 

A Samaritan woman approaches to 
draw water from the deep well, and 
Jesus asks for a drink of water, only 
to be refused. 

30 



JACOB'S WELL AND BEYOND 31 

Jesus was one of those gifted souls 
who 

"Find tongues in trees, books in the running 
brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every- 
thing"; 

and from the drink of water refused, 
preached the "living water" as a free 
gift. 

"Sir," said she, "give me this water, 
that I thirst not, neither come all the 
way hither to draw." "Jesus saith unto 
her, Go, call thy husband, and come 
hither. The woman answered and said 
unto him, I have no husband. Jesus 
saith under her, Thou saidst well, I have 
no husband : for thou hast had five hus- 
bands; and he whom thou now hast is 
not thy husband." (4. 15-18.) 

Finding the veil snatched away from 
her sinful life, but very little abashed 
by the exposure, she exclaims, "Sir, I 
perceive that thou art a prophet" ; and 
then, perhaps to change a conversation 



32 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

that had become embarrassing, and per- 
haps from higher motives, she broaches 
the age-long question between Jews and 
Samaritans, as to where they ought to 
worship, in Jerusalem or on the Samari- 
tan mountain; and the Great Teacher 
gives an answer that empties the whole 
controversy of significance. It is not 
the place, but the spirit of worship that 
matters. "Jesus saith unto her, 
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, 
when neither in this mountain, nor in 
Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. 
. . . But the hour cometh, and now is, 
when the true worshipers shall wor- 
ship the Father in spirit and truth. . . . 
God is a Spirit: and they that worship 
him must worship in spirii and truth" 
(4.21-24). 

Impressed, but not ready to give up 
her lifelong sectarian belief, the woman 
appeals the question to a higher author- 
ity than that of a prophet, "I know that 
Messiah cometh; . . . when he is 
come, he will declare unto us all things. 



JACOB'S WELL AND BEYOND 33 

Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto 
thee am he" (4. 25, 26). 

Leaving her water-pot, and that with 
which she lowered it into the well, for 
the convenience of Jesus and his com- 
pany, she hurried back to her village. 
To the men she cried, "Come, see a man, 
who told me all things that ever I did: 
can this be the Christ?" (29). 

What a narrow, soiled life was hers ! 
Like some of our times, she counted her 
years by her husbands. Yet she had 
influence enough to bring the whole vil- 
lage to Jesus ; and after two days' min- 
istry with them, the people of Askar 
recognized Jesus as more than a 
prophet, broader than a Jewish messiah, 
as "indeed the Saviour of the world" 
(42). 

When he came into Galilee the news 
spread that their own prophet, who had 
done such wonders in Judaea, was com- 
ing home; and at Cana he found a 
nobleman who had hurried up from 
Capernaum to beg him to come down 



34 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

and heal his fever-smitten son. In- 
stead of that, he spoke the word of 
power in Cana and healed the lad in 
Capernaum. And the grateful father 
believed and his whole house. 

If we had been among the simple- 
minded Samaritans, or in the noble- 
man's family, would we not have done 
the same? 






VI 
THE LORD OF THE SABBATH 

(John 5. 1-47.) 

The evangelist now introduces a 
series of encounters of our Lord with 
the hostile Jews, in which his claim to be 
the Christ, the Son of God, was an- 
tagonized. 

One of these was occasioned by the 
cure of a paralytic at the pool of Be- 
thesda in Jerusalem. 

One Sabbath day Jesus visited this 
pool, whose waters were reputed to have 
curative properties, especially at the 
moment of the moving of the waters, 
ascribed by some to the descent of an 
angel into the pool, really due to the 
action of an intermittent spring. 

He found there many sick people, 
blind, lame, or paralyzed, among them 
one who had been an invalid for thirty- 
35 



36 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

eight years. After a few words which 
drew out the fact that the man was ut- 
terly helpless, Jesus told him to rise, 
take up his bed, and walk. 

The man rose up in perfect health, 
rolled up the pallet on which he had 
been lying, and walked about with it in 
his arms. 

The crowd, instead of being grateful 
for the marvelous miracle, were horri- 
fied at the breach of the Sabbath in- 
volved in carrying the bed. 

The upshot of the matter was that 
Jesus was publicly charged with the 
crime of Sabbath-breaking. This 
brought up the question of his Messiah- 
ship ; for if he indeed was the Christ, he 
was Lord of the Sabbath also, whereas 
if he were only man, he was, like other 
men, subject to the law. 

In his answer he planted himself 
squarely upon his Sonship to God. "My 
Father," said he, referring, of course, to 
God his heavenly Father, "worketh 
hitherto, and I work." 



THE LORD OF THE SABBATH 37 

This brought upon him the even more 
serious charge of blasphemy, "because 
he not only brake the sabbath, but also 
called God his own Father, making 
himself equal with God" (5. 18). 

To this capital charge Jesus does not 
plead "Not guilty." He admits the 
fact, and justifies it on the loftiest 
grounds. 

He is indeed the Son, in such intimate 
union with the Father that he does 
nothing whatever but "what he seeth 
the Father doing" ; while the Father so 
loves him that he shows everything that 
he does to the Son (19). 

Moreover the Father imparts mar- 
velous powers to the Son; the power to 
raise the dead and to judge the world, 
so that men should honor the Son even 
as they honor the Father (21-23) . 

Even then the Son was granting 
eternal life and immunity from judg- 
ment to those who heard his word, and 
believed in his divine mission (24) . 

But the time was coming when the 



38 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

dead in the tombs should hear his voice, 
and should come forth, "they that have 
done good, unto the resurrection of life ; 
and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of judgment" (29). 

That such a Being was Lord of the 
Sabbath needs no argument. But was 
he? What proof does he offer that he 
is indeed the Son of God? 

He frankly admits that his own tes- 
timony alone was not sufficient. But he 
has other testimony : 

1. The witness of John the Baptist. 
This was fresh in the memory of all, for 
the very men who were accusing Jesus, 
had sent to John, not long before, and 
received his express declaration that 
Jesus is the Son of God (1. 34). 

2. The greater witness of the Father. 
"The works' which the Father hath 
given me to accomplish," says Jesus, 
"the very works that I do, bear witness 
of me, that the Father hath sent me" 
(5. 36). 

Another witness is that of the Scrip- 



THE LORD OF THE SABBATH 39 

tures. "Ye search the scriptures," said 
Jesus, "because ye think that in them ye 
have eternal life; and these are they 
which bear witness of me" (5. 39) . The 
evidence of the Scriptures is just as con- 
vincing to us to-day, as to believers on 
Jesus in the days of his flesh. 

We have a testimony which these an- 
cient believers did not have in the same 
degree — the growth of the Church of 
Christ. When we view the church, in 
spite of the apparent humbleness of its 
origin, in spite of internal weakness, 
and errors, and dissensions, rising like a 
trickling rill from Calvary, deepening 
and widening until like a mighty river 
it sweeps on through the centuries, 
touching and blessing well-nigh every 
family of man, more potent after two 
thousand years than ever, and perhaps 
the greatest moral force on earth to-day, 
we have proof far greater than that of 
miracle that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God. 



yn 

THE BREAD OF LIFE 

(John 6.) 

John the Baptist was murdered. 
Sick at heart and weary in body, Jesus 
crossed the lake with his disciples, to 
"rest awhile." But instead of rest he 
found five thousand people awaiting 
him ; and, instead of being indignant at 
the intrusion, he "had compassion on 
them," taught them, healed their sick, 
and fed the five thousand with the two 
loaves and five little fishes, from a boy's 
lunch-bag. 

The feast was an object lesson. 
What it did for the natural life, Jesus 
declared himself willing to do for the 
spiritual life. Both were misunder- 
stood — the feast and the discourse on 
the bread of life. To some who ate of 
the loaves and fishes, it was merely a 
40 



THE BREAD OF LIFE 41 

free meal, and they were ready for an- 
other the next day. Others saw more 
clearly what Jesus had to do with feed- 
ing them ; and they intended to take him 
by force and make him king, thinking, 
doubtless, that a man who could carry 
the commissariat of an army in a lunch- 
bag would be an ideal leader in a cam- 
paign against the Romans. A very few 
were affected by the miracle of the 
loaves much as the disciples had been by 
his first miracle at Cana. He "mani- 
fested forth his glory," and they "be- 
lieved on him." 

In like manner the discourse on the 
bread of life was misunderstood. Our 
Lord's profoundly spiritual words were 
taken in the most crass literalness. 
When he spoke of their eating his flesh 
and drinking his blood, they thought of 
cannibalism. They forgot that in the 
feast on the other side of the lake the 
original loaves and fishes were a very 
small part of the feast, and all the rest 
was — Jesus. If he had not been there, 



42 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

they would have gone hungry. But 
taking the baldly literal sense of what 
he was saying, they altogether missed 
his meaning, and were disgusted at what 
they thought he meant; and "upon this 
many of his disciples went back, and 
walked no more with him" (6. 66) . 

What, then, was Jesus saying in this 
discourse on the bread of life? 

He was speaking of something far 
too deep for words, and that must be ex- 
pressed by figures, if at all. He was 
speaking of something that to this day 
most of his followers miss. 

There are two sorts of life in the same 
man : the natural life, by which he does 
natural things, such things as animals 
do, only a grade higher — thinking, talk- 
ing, toiling, playing; and the spiritual 
life, which only rises to consciousness at 
the new birth, and by which he does 
such things as the holy angels are doing, 
who do God's commandments, "heark- 
ening unto the voice of his word" (Psa. 
103. 20). 



THE BREAD OF LIFE 43 

Jesus does not call this "spiritual 
life" as we do. Indeed, if by spiritual 
life we mean a life that influences the 
spirit only, it is a misnomer ; for this life 
is interfused throughout spirit, soul, and 
body, keeping the spirit in touch with 
God, inspiring the soul with new desires 
and ambitions, making the body the 
agent of God's will. 

Jesus does call it "eternal life." But 
here, again, we are liable to mistake. 
We have a way of dividing our exist- 
ence into two parts — time and eternity; 
and of thinking of eternal things as hav- 
ing to do mainly with that portion of 
our lives which lies beyond the grave. 
There is no such division. We are just 
as much in eternity now as we ever shall 
be. Eternal life, beginning now and 
reaching throughout eternity is, indeed, 
a life that shall last forever, that is not 
interrupted by what we call death ; but 
it is much more than that. It is the sort 
of life that the holy saints lived while in 
the body, and are still living in glory. 



44 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

As there are two lives, even so there 
are two foods — a food for the natural 
life and a food for the spiritual life. It 
is of these that Jesus says, "Work not 
for the food which perisheth, but for the 
food which abideth unto eternal life, 
which the Son of man shall give unto 
you" (6.27). 

Partly grasping the idea that this 
"food which abideth" was that which 
would make them efficient to do God's 
will, some one in the crowd asked him, 
"What must we do, that we may work 
the works of God?" (6.28). 

If we had not the teaching of Christ, 
how would we answer this most impor- 
tant question? Would we say, "Well, 
if we really want to work the works of 
God, we must study his Word, we must 
pray a good deal, we must be very dili- 
gent and earnest"? Others might say, 
"Fast a good bit, afflict your soul, mor- 
tify that flesh of yours." Still others 
might say: "Oh, well, if you really want 
to do God's will, make up your mind 



THE BREAD OF LIFE 45 

that you will, and then jump in and 
do it." 

Excellent! but not at all what Jesus 
says. He says, "This is the work of 
God, that ye believe on him whom he 
hath sent" (29). 

Get it, beloved! It isn't anything 
that you can get from Christ, much less 
anything that you can do, it is Christ 
himself that is the bread of life. What- 
ever else you may have, without Christ 
you cannot work the works of God ; and 
if you try, you'll make a mess of it. 

"I am the bread of life" is perhaps the 
most astounding assumption that Jesus 
ever made ; that of all the millions who 
profess to work the works of God, none 
shall succeed but those who eat the 
flesh and drink the blood of the Son of 
man. "Abide in me, and I in you. As 
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, 
except it abide in the vine, so neither can 
ye except ye abide in me" (15. 4), says 
Jesus to the eleven. But, how can we 
abide in him? He tells us: "He that 



46 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, 
abideth in me and I in him." 

Pretty strong meat! Yes, it sifted 
the Master's following. The greater 
part walked no more with him. Even 
among the twelve there were symptoms 
of dissatisfaction. "Would ye also go 
away?" said Jesus to the twelve. "Peter 
answered him, To whom shall we go? 
Thou hast the words of eternal life. 
And we have believed and know that 
thou art the Holy One of God" (6. 68, 
69). 

Well, which way shall we go? with 
the departing disciples, who said, "This 
is a hard saying; who can bear it?" or 
with good old Peter, who had been 
feasting on the bread of life, and be- 
lieved and knew that none other than 
the Holy One of God could feed the 
soul with the bread of life? 



VIII 
JANGLING VOICES 

The seventh and eighth chapters of 
John's Gospel are not easy to analyze ; 
but above the strife of tongues, like the 
tolling of a great bell above the clatter 
of a city street, we cannot miss the ma- 
jestic words of Jesus, words which 
"nothing extenuate, nor set down aught 
in malice." 

The first jangling voices which we 
hear are those of Jesus' own brothers. 
Hard, worldly, skeptical words they ut- 
ter. "His brethren did not believe on 
him," but they could not but know that 
their great Brother was doing marvel- 
ous deeds and speaking wonderful 
words; and, feeling that if he should 
now be accepted by the authorities as 
the Messiah it would reflect great credit 
upon his kinsmen, they appeal to his 
worldly ambition. 

47 



48 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

"The lever they use to move him is a 
taunt. If these works of yours are 
genuine miracles, don't hang around vil- 
lages and little country towns, but go 
and show yourself in the capital. No 
one who is really confident that he has 
a claim on public attention wanders 
about in solitary places, but repairs to 
the most crowded haunts of men. Go 
up now to the feast, and your disciples 
will gather about you, and your claims 
will be settled once for all" (Marcus 
Dods). 

His brethren did not know that to do 
what they suggested, and what Jesus 
actually did six months later, meant to 
him — death. 

When Jesus did at last enter Jeru- 
salem, the city was seething with jan- 
gling voices: "Where is he?" "He is a 
good man." "Not he ; but he leadeth the 
multitude astray." "Is not this the man 
they are seeking to kill?" "Lo, he 
speaketh openly, and they say nothing 
against him." "Do the rulers know 



JANGLING VOICES 49 

that this is indeed the Messiah?" "Nay, 
we know whence this man is, but when 
Christ cometh no one knoweth whence 
he is." "Well, when the Christ shall 
come, will he do more signs than this 
man has done?" 

The clear, majestic voice of Jesus 
dominated these jangling voices. We 
may say, in brief, that he took back 
nothing that he had said as to his Mes- 
siahship and divine Sonship ; but some- 
times reached heights he had never 
touched before. 

For instance, "On the last day, the 
great day of the feast, Jesus stood and 
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
come unto me and drink." Jesus had 
said something very like this before ; but 
now he adds : "He that believeth on me, 
. . . from within him shall flow rivers 
of living water" (7.37,38). Besides re- 
ceiving spiritual gifts, the believer is to 
impart them, to himself become a foun- 
tain of the living water. We do not 
wonder that when his hearers grasped 



50 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

this promise of the Great Teacher, some 
said, "Of a truth this is the Prophet," 
and others, "This is the Christ." 

Another high point in Christ's teach- 
ing was when Jesus spoke unto them 
saying, "I am the light of the world ; he 
that f olloweth me shall not walk in the 
darkness, but shall have the light of 
life." A mighty claim this, to be the 
light of the world! Not one of many 
lights, but the light. It is true all of 
his followers are lights of the world, but 
only so as planets reflecting the light of 
the sun. 

"They are but broken lights of thee; 
And thou, O Lord, art more than they." 

Jesus was not by any means allowed 
to teach in peace. Once a warrant was 
issued for his arrest ; but he captured the 
captors. The officers returned to those 
who sent them, without their prisoner, 
reporting, "Never man spake like this 
man!" 

Often the jangling words interrupted 



JANGLING VOICES 51 

his teaching. Then the fire flew. It 
was plain that the "sword of his mouth" 
was no wooden weapon, but a true Da- 
mascus blade. Watching the thrust 
and parry, we perceive that the Man of 
Galilee was no mean swordsman. Take 
this for example: 

"I speak the things which I have seen 
with my Father: and ye also do the 
things, which ye heard from your 
father." 

"Our father is Abraham." 

"If you were Abraham's children, ye 
would do the works of Abraham. But 
now ye seek to kill me, a man that has 
told you the truth, which I heard from 
God : this did not Abraham." 

"We are not born of fornication; we 
have one Father, even God." . . , 

"Ye are of your father the devil; and 
the lusts of your father it is your will to 
do" (38-44). 

Pretty sharp talk that ! There was a 
good deal of human nature in Jesus of 
Nazareth. 



52 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

In this discussion Jesus laid stress 
upon the credibility of his own testi- 
mony. This may not have seemed very 
convincing to the Pharisees, who said, 
"Thou bear est witness of thyself: thy 
witness is not true" ; but to us now, there 
is no proof whatever so convincing as 
Jesus' own evident conviction that he 
was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. 

Right here comes in the evidential 
value of miracles to us who have never 
seen a miracle. If Jesus' assertion and 
evident belief that he was the Christ the 
Son of God stood alone, we might sus- 
pect that he was a victim of insane de- 
lusions of grandeur. But we have over- 
whelming historical proof that his asser- 
tion was backed up by such miracles as 
no other man ever did ; so that we have, 
as he says, "the witness of two" — of 
himself and of the heavenly Father who 
gave him power to work miracles — that 
he was the Christ, the Son of God. 



IX 

"CAN A DEVIL OPEN THE 
EYES OF THE BLIND?" 

We now take up the study of one of 
the sweetest stories ever told, that of the 
grateful man who was born blind (John 
9. 1 to 10. 21). 

"A prophet on the Sabbath day 
Had touched his sightless eyes with clay, 
And made him see, who had been blind." 

This was a miracle in many ways 
unique. First of all, we can trace its 
origin back into the mind of Jesus and 
into the heart of God his Father. 

There was in the mind of the Master 
a powerful impulse to give sight to this 
blind man; and back of that still, his 
consciousness that it was the will of his 
Father that he should do so. 

God wanted that blind man given his 
53 



54 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

sight, partly for the blind man's own 
sake, but more for the sake of giving the 
light of life to those who would receive 
it through his Son. 

Jesus wanted to give sight to the 
blind man, partly because he loved him, 
but even more because it was the will of 
the Father to glorify his Son by em- 
powering him to give to the world just 
such signs. 

The miracle was done in circum- 
stances of extreme danger to Jesus, 
He had just escaped from stoning by 
hiding himself (8. 59) . It was the Sab- 
bath day, which he was already under 
indictment for violating. Another Sab- 
bath miracle would seem altogether 
likely to reveal his hiding place and 
bring the whole rabble, with the stones 
in their hands, and more angry than 
ever, down upon him. 

Some may have thought that it was 
no time or place for such a miracle ; but 
Jesus felt that it must be done and done 
then. "I must work the works of him 



EYES OF THE BLIND 55 

that sent me while it is day," said he, 
adding, "The night cometh when no 
man can work." Truly he was our 
brother ! 

It may be that our Saviour's desire to 
avoid a tumult explains his seemingly 
grotesque act in spitting on the ground, 
making a paste of the road-dust with 
the spittle, and, smearing the eyes of him 
who was born blind. It is altogether 
likely that it was the Master's touch, 
and not the clay, or spittle, or the 
Siloam-water, that was the means of re- 
storing the blind man's sight. If so, the 
actual miracle was performed at the 
Temple gate, not at Siloam. But to 
keep the knowledge of the miracle, not 
only from the angry mob within the 
Temple, but from everybody, including 
the restored man himself, Jesus seals up 
his eyes with the clay, and sends him 
to Siloam to wash. And as he washed, 
the seal of clay dissolved, and the man 
came seeing. When he came back to his 
old sitting place the excitement was 



56 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

over, and those who would could look 
calmly upon another sign given by the 
Father to justify the belief that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Son of God. 

There is perhaps no recorded miracle 
more open to investigation than this 
one, or any that was more carefully 
investigated; and that by thoroughly 
competent and most unfriendly investi- 
gators. In every direction it can be 
traced back to beginnings. 

The man was born blind. This was 
the common belief. The disciples said 
so; Jesus himself said so; his parents 
said so; and what is more convincing 
than a mother's evidence that her baby 
was blind? The man himself said so, 
and didn't he know? Was not his whole 
youth and early manhood proof 
enough? 

Now he saw. "One thing I know," 
said he, "that whereas I was blind, now 
I see." They doubted his word, they 
reviled him, they twitted him as "alto- 
gether born in sin," they cast him out 



EYES OF THE BLIND 57 

of the synagogue, a dreadful penalty! 
But, 

"Their threats and fury all went wide; 
They could not touch his Hebrew pride; 
Their sneers at Jesus and his band, 
Nameless and homeless in the land, 
Their boasts of Moses and his Lord, 
All could not change him by one word : 
I know not what this man may be, 
Sinner or saint ; but as for me, 
One thing I know, that I am he 
Who once was blind, but now I see." 

And how clearly he reasoned! "Since 
the world began it was never heard that 
anyone opened the eyes of a man born 
blind. If this man were not from God, 
he could do nothing." 

They could find no answer, so they 
cast him out of the synagogue, expelled 
him from their church ; and when Jesus 
heard of it, he found him and took 
him in. 

This brings before us two groups, 
the Pharisees, who cast this long- 
afflicted lamb out of their fold, and 



58 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

Jesus and his followers who found him, 
and took him in. Both groups claimed 
to shepherd the flock of God. Of those 
who had thrown this man out, their own 
prophet had said, "Woe unto the shep- 
herds that destroy and scatter the sheep 
of my pasture! saith Jehovah" (Jer. 
23. 1). It is of them that Jesus says, 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
entereth not by the door into the fold of 
the sheep, but climbeth up some other 
way, the same is a thief and a robber" 
(10. 1). Of himself he says, "I am the 
good shepherd; the good shepherd lay- 
eth down his life for the sheep" (10. 
11). "I am the good shepherd; and I 
know mine own, and my own know me" 
(14). 

"There arose again a division among 
the Jews. . . . And many of them said, 
He hath a demon and is mad ; why hear 
ye him? Others said, These are not the 
words of one possessed with a demon. 
Can a demon open the eyes of the 
blind?" (19-21). 



EYES OF THE BLIND 59 

Can it? Would it if it could? Are 
not these miracles of Jesus "too great to 
be done by man, and too good to be 
done by the devil" ? How can we avoid 
the conclusion that verily Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God? ' 



BETHANY 

Sweet Bethany! Here Jesus was 
always welcome and honored. Here, in 
a home of refinement and comfort, he 
rested before the Battle of Calvary. 
Here too we get outstanding proof of 
the lovable humanity and mighty divin- 
ity of Jesus Christ. 

Saint Luke tells of the Master's first 
reception in Bethany: "As they went on 
their way, he entered into a certain vil- 
lage : and a certain woman named Mar- 
tha received him into her house" (Luke 
10. 38) . Happy is the home into which 
Jesus is received ! Thrice happy where, 
as in this home, he loves to stay ! 

Martha "had a sister called Mary, 
who also sat at the Lord's feet, and 
heard his word" (Luke 10. 39) . "Now 
Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and 
Lazarus" (John 11. 5) . Blessed home! 
60 



BETHANY 61 

Driven out of Jerusalem and rejected 
in Galilee, Jesus "went away again be- 
yond the Jordan into the place where 
John was at the first baptizing; and 
there he abode" (John 10. 40). — 
"Tenting again on the old camp- 
ground" ! 

Here he receives an urgent message 
from the sisters, "Lord, behold he whom 
thou lovest is sick," but strangely seems 
to loiter there until Lazarus died, was 
buried and lay in the grave. Then, 
with his disciples, he turned his steps 
toward Judsea. 

There is little need to recount the 
story so familiar and so thrilling ; Jesus, 
a hunted man, shunning the town where 
he knew the emissaries of the Sanhedrin 
would be; Martha, strong and vigilant 
even in the shadow of death, hearing of 
his coming, and meeting him with the 
words, so often repeated with Mary, 
"Lord, if thou hadst been here, my 
brother would not have died" ; her flick- 
ering hope that her brother would rise 



62 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

again, perhaps "in the resurrection at 
the last day," perhaps sooner; her firm 
faith in Jesus as all that he claimed to 
be, that whatever he might do or not do, 
he was "the Christ, the Son of God, even 
he that cometh into the world" (11. 27) . 
Then we have gentle Mary, too much 
absorbed with grief to notice who came 
or went, but at Martha's whisper, "The 
Master is here and calleth for thee," 
rising quickly, hastening to where Jesus 
was, taking her old place "at his feet," 
and echoing the words so often conned 
over with her sister, "Lord, if thou 
hadst been here, my brother would not 
have died." And we have that weeping 
procession to the grave, when, with the 
rest, "Jesus wept"; the reluctant re- 
moval of the stone door of the sepulcher, 
when we seem to catch the mephitic 
smell, and see the prone body in its 
white linen cerements; the prayer of 
Jesus, rather a confidential talk with 
God than a prayer ; the cry with a loud 
voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" the stir 



BETHANY 63 

in the cave as the rising dead comes 
forth "bound hand and foot with grave 
clothes; and his face was bound about 
with a napkin" (11. 44). 

It is all over. The sisters, wild with 
joy, cling about the neck of their risen 
brother, the crowd go with them and 
him to their home, the spies of the 
Pharisees creep off to tell them the 
latest news; and Jesus? — Ah! Jesus, 
more than ever fugitive, is well on his 
way toward Ephraim, surely not the 
Ephraim of modern scholarship — or 
guesswork — but the ancient Ephron, 
where Judas Maccabseus won a great 
victory (1 Mace. 5. 46), still beyond the 
place where John at first baptized. 

There is another recorded visit of 
Jesus to Bethany (12. 1-11), when 
"they made him a supper there; and 
Martha served; but Lazarus was one of 
them that sat at meat with him. Mary 
therefore took a pound of ointment 
of pure nard, very precious, and 
anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped 



64 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

his feet with her hair; and the house" — 
and world — "was filled with the odor of 
the ointment" (12. 2, 3). Then it was 
that Judas Iscariot found the odor of 
the ointment more offensive than the 
body of entombed Lazarus could have 
been, and in his indignation went and 
forged the last link in the chain that 
should bind Jesus to the cross. 

In Bethany we find Jesus intensely 
human in his tearful sympathy; but di- 
vine in the power that called his dead 
friend back to life. As Martha said 
of him, so say we: "Yea, Lord: I have 
believed that thou art the Christ, the 
Son of God, even he that cometh into 
the world" (11. 27). 



XI 

JERUSALEM 

(John 12.) 

While our Lord's fame on account 
of the raising of Lazarus was fresh, he 
offered himself to the common people 
of Jerusalem and the passover pilgrims 
from all over the Jewish world as their 
Messiah and King. This he did by pur- 
posely fulfilling the prophecy of the 
prophet Zechariah: "Thy king cometh 
unto thee, . . . riding upon an ass, 
even upon a colt the foal of an ass" 
(Zech. 9. 9). He presented himself in 
a way that, without offending the 
Romans, would be understood by every 
Israelite. What interests us is that 
Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the 
Hebrew prophets, and by the hosannas 
of the multitude was so accepted by the 
people. From thence forward, whether 
65 



66 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

he lived or whether he died, he was 
Jesus the King of the Jews ; so even 
his enemies hailepl him; so Pilate wrote 
the title for his cross, writing wiser than 
he knew. May we add that, in spite of 
the fact that "he came unto his own, and 
his own received him not," Jesus has 
brought more honor upon Israel than 
all her prophets and kings ; and to-day, 
in the estimation of the world, the 
greatest of the sons of Abraham is Jesus 
of Nazareth. 

And he had a message for the Gen- 
tiles. Certain Greeks that came up to 
worship at the feast sought and ob- 
tained an interview with Jesus. To 
them he said, "The hour is come, that 
the Son of man should be glorified" ( 12. 
23) ; that is, that the movement which 
he was heading should succeed glori- 
ously. 

But how? Not by his continued life, 
but by his death. As a kernel of wheat 
must drop into the ground, or remain a 
bare kernel of wheat, must die to bring 



JERUSALEM 67 

forth much fruit, so must the Messiah 
die, to 

"live again 
In minds made better by his living." 

A Messiah reigning on in Jerusalem 
would mean a localized kingdom, a 
kingdom of this world; but a Messiah 
who hated his life in this world, and who 
was "lifted up" to die upon the cross, 
would draw all men, Greeks and He- 
brews, Jews and Gentiles, unto him. 

Here the hostile Jews broke in: 
"Lifted up ! How can the Christ, who 
abideth forever, be lifted up?" They 
rightly understood by "lifting up" exe- 
cution on a cross, just as we understand 
by hanging execution on a gallows. 
How, then, could the Christ be lifted 
up? 

Jesus does not directly answer, but 
he has a word for those hostile Jews. 
He would have them come into the light 
in which he and his little flock were 
walking. It was still shining, but the 



68 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

darkness was at hand. Yet there was 
still time; and if they would only "be- 
lieve in the light," even they might be 
sons of the light. 

Then he gave them an object lesson 
of the coming darkness. Jesus "de- 
parted and hid himself from them" (12. 
36). 

He adds a few words, perhaps the 
last that he was ever to speak to his own 
who received him not, most of them al- 
ready spoken to the same people. Their 
gist is that he is so united to God the 
Father, so truly his messenger and rep- 
resentative, that to believe in him was 
to believe in God, to reject him was to 
reject God, and that in rejecting both 
him and the Father they were rejecting 
eternal life. 

What shall we say of this man, who, 
having just displayed his power in rais- 
ing dead Lazarus to life, staked and de- 
liberately lost his life on the claim that 
he was the Messiah and King of Israel, 
and that, if he were lifted up, he would 



JERUSALEM 69 

draw all men unto him, Gentiles as well 
as Jews — a claim fulfilled by the com- 
ing into his kingdom of multitudes of 
all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, 
and tongues, more and more continually 
even unto this day? Is not this the 
Christ, the Son of God, the author and 
giver of eternal life? 



XII 

THE UPPER ROOM 

(John 13-17.) 

The "upper room" is the Holy of 
holies of John's Gospel, if not of the 
entire Bible. An exhaustive study of it 
does not belong to our plan, which is, 
rather, to listen to this marvelous table 
talk of Jesus, Testament in hand, and 
inquire what bearing it has on our belief 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God? 

First of all we are impressed with his 
human friendship. "Having loved his 
own that were in the world, he loved 
them unto the end" (13. 1). 

This love was condescending love. 
"Knowing that the Father had given 
all things into his hands, and that he 
came forth from God, and goeth unto 
God" (13. 3), he took upon him the 
70 



THE UPPER ROOM 71 

form of a servant, by washing his dis- 
ciples' feet. 

This was to teach them a lesson in 
service. "Ye call me Teacher and, 
Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am. If 
I then, the Lord and Teacher, have 
washed your feet, ye also ought to wash 
one another's feet." In this he does not 
bate in the least his claim of superiority. 

In no one thing was the quality of his 
friendship shown more clearly than in 
his treatment of Judas Iscariot, the 
traitor, so kind, so patient, so forbear- 
ing was it, until by his own act that 
wretched apostle became apostate. 

If we may accept the arrangement 
suggested by Dr. Moffatt and others, 
by which chapters fifteen and sixteen 
are restored to what is supposed to be 
their original position in the middle of 
the thirty-first verse of the thirteenth 
chapter, we come at once to the cement- 
ing or interfusing of the friendship of 
the disciples with their Lord, as the 
branch abides in the vine. This is much 



72 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

more intimate than earthly friendship. 
It is the interlocking of their very na- 
tures, he in them and they in him, as the 
branch in the vine and the vine in the 
branch. 

The bond which united them — as we 
might say, the sap which made the vine 
and its branches one — was love, the 
measure of which in them was that they 
should keep his commandments, and in 
him that he should lay down his life for 
his friends (15.10,13). 

Nor would he have this merely a 
union between himself and each one of 
them. He would have no schism 
among the branches any more than be- 
tween each branch and the vine; the 
gist of his commandment was that they 
should "love one another, even as he had 
loved them" (15. 12). 

This mutual love would soon be their 
only earthly consolation, for the world 
would hate them even as it had hated 
him, would persecute them as it had 
persecuted him, would think that a serv- 



THE UPPER ROOM 73 

ice had been rendered to God in killing 
them even as on the morrow his mur- 
derers would think the same in killing 
him (15. 18ff.; 16.2). 

One mighty heavenly consolation 
they would have in the loneliness and 
suffering which they would endure in 
the world: the comforter (15. 26), 
whose presence would be so indispensa- 
ble to them, that it was expedient that 
Jesus should go away from them, for if 
he did not go away, the Comforter 
would not come, "but," said he, "if I go, 
I will send him unto you" (16. 7). It 
was impracticable for Jesus, at the same 
time, to be with them in bodily presence 
and in them in spirit; and this Com- 
forter, this Spirit of truth, was none 
other than "the Spirit of Jesus" (Acts 
16. 7) . Thus it is that in promising the 
coming of the Spirit of truth, Jesus 
says, "I will not leave you desolate: I 
come unto you" (14. 18). 

There was another party to this 
league of friendship — the Father. In 



74 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

answer to a question of Judas, not Is- 
cariot, "Lord, what is come to pass that 
thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and 
not unto the world?" Jesus answered, 
"If a man love me, he will keep my 
word : and my Father will love him, and 
we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him" (14. 22, 23). So that 
the Father, as well as the Spirit and the 
Son, joins this sacred fellowship. 

To this Father — whom Jesus had 
once identified to the Jews, as he "of 
whom ye say, that he is your God" 
(John 8. 54), and to whom he was 
so related that to have seen Jesus was to 
have seen the Father — "Lifting up his 
eyes to heaven, he said," in a prayer of 
which every petition is afire with 
God: "Father, glorify thou me with 
thine own self with the glory which I 
had with thee before the world was. I 
manifested thy name unto the men 
whom thou gavest me out of the world. 
. . . The words which thou gavest me I 
have given unto them, and they received 



THE UPPER ROOM 75 

them, and knew of a truth that I came 
forth from thee, and they believed that 
thou didst send me. . . . Neither for 
these only do I pray, but for them also 
that believe on me through their 
word; that they may all be one; . . . 
even as we are one ; I in them, and thou 
in me, that they may be perfected into 
one ; that the world may know that thou 
didst send me" (John 17. 5, 6, 8, 20, 
23). 

We have followed this confidential 
table talk of Jesus, in which he laid bare 
his very soul to his disciples, and to 
God ; and in view of it all we ask, in our 
Lord's own words: "What think ye of 
the Christ? whose son is he?" (Matt. 
22. 42.) 



XIII 
THE BATTLE OF CALVARY 

(Chapters 18-20.) 

When Judas Iscariot went to the 
chief priests to betray Jesus for thirty- 
pieces of silver, if he could have re- 
vealed some immorality in his life, or 
some trickery in his miracles, he might 
as well have asked and received thirty 
thousand pieces of silver as a paltry 
thirty. But, after three years' inti- 
mate association with Jesus, all that he 
could reveal was the place where "Jesus 
ofttimes resorted with his disciples" for 
rest and prayer. 

This he did reveal; and when with "a 
band of men and officers from the chief 
priests and Pharisees, with weapons and 
torches," the garden was surrounded, 
and Jesus "knowing all things that 
were coming upon him, went forth, and 
76 



THE BATTLE OF CALVARY 77 

saith unto them, I am he; . . . they 
went backward, and fell to the ground" 
(18. 4, 6). 

It is hard to conceive how John, who 
is usually so restrained in his state- 
ments, and who is here describing the 
humiliation of Jesus, his arrest, his 
binding and leading away, his scourg- 
ing and crucifixion, should put into his 
history an event so unlikely as this, un- 
less it was true. 

True indeed it was I The kingly man 
who met them at the entrance of the 
garden was so majestic, so unlike their 
conception of the supposed bandit, 
whom they had come with swords and 
staves to arrest, that they could not be- 
lieve it when they heard from his own 
lips that he was Jesus of Nazareth, and, 
taking him to be some high dignitary, 
they saluted him as if he were a king. 

Not less dignified was his bearing at 
his mock trial before Annas and Caia- 
phas, who had already prejudged him 
to death. And when in his hearing 



78 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

Peter, as Jesus had foretold, thrice 
denied that he knew him, that kingly- 
glance that had brought those who came 
to arrest him to the earth, melted 
Peter's heart. 

Had it not been for the malignity of 
the persecutors and the weakness of the 
judge, the trial of Jesus before Pilate 
would have been a vindication. Pilate 
found "no fault at all in him." Nay, 
comparing him with the Jewish rabble 
who were accusing him, Pilate ranked 
Jesus as King of the Jews. Whatever 
the purple robe may have meant to the 
mocking soldiers, to Pilate it betokened 
kingly majesty, just as the gorgeous 
robe with which Herod arrayed him 
was really a white robe betokening inno- 
cence (Luke 23. 11). When Pilate 
penned the title for the cross, "Jesus of 
Nazareth the King of the Jews/" 
he knew that, though 

"Trouble-tried and torture-torn, 
The kingliest kings are crowned with 
thorn." 



THE BATTLE OF CALVARY 79 

Pilate also knew that he could have 
no authority at all against Jesus, except 
it were given him from above. Roman 
law gave him no authority to condemn 
an innocent man to the cross; and he 
certainly had no other authority. Were 
it not for the will of God that Jesus 
should die for sinners, and Jesus' con- 
sent to yield his will to that of God, 
Pilate could never have sent him to the 
cross. He was only an instrument, 
guilty indeed, of a higher power. 

The real charge against Jesus was 
that he made himself the Son of God. 
This he never denied. For this he died 
on the cross, thus ratifying by his suf- 
fering and death his claim to be the 
Christ, the Son of God. 

We need not dwell upon the scene of 
Calvary, perhaps never so well summed 
up as by Rousseau the French philos- 
opher: "If the life and death of Soc- 
rates are those of a philosopher, the life 
and death of Jesus are those of a God." 
But in the resurrection, the Battle of 



80 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

Calvary that seemed almost lost as he 
was "crucified, dead and buried," turns 
to victory. What mean the stone 
taken from the sepulcher, the empty 
tomb, the words passed between the 
risen Christ and Mary Magdalen, the 
lips so lately sealed in death, saying to 
the disciples, "Peace be unto you"? 
Can we better answer than in the words 
of the doubting apostle, when he saw 
the pierced hands and feet and the riven 
side of the Crucified vibrant with eter- 
nal life, "Thomas answered and said 
unto him, My Lord and my God" (20. 
28)? 



XIV 
JOHN SUMS UP 

Two writers are really concerned in 
producing John's Gospel, an editor and 
the author. The editor was probably 
that Gaius to whom John addressed his 
Third Epistle, and of whom a tradition, 
of some authority, says that "the Gospel 
of John was published in Ephesus 
through Gaius." 

This editor, who certainly was of suf- 
ficient standing in the early church to 
give his commendation weight, testifies 
to the veracity and competency of the 
author: "This is the disciple that bear- 
eth witness of these things, and wrote 
these things ; and we know that his wit- 
ness is true." It is probably the editor 
who identifies the author as, "the dis- 
ciple whom Jesus loved . . . who also 
leaned back on his breast at supper, and 
said, Lord, who is he that betrayeth 
thee?" (21.20). 

81 



82 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

It may be asked, why the editor did 
not name the author, instead of desig- 
nating him in this roundabout way? 
Well, the answer seems to be, that to do 
so would be to bring suffering, or even 
death, upon the author, who was al- 
ready a marked man by his exile to Pat- 
mos. Such was the enmity of the 
Roman government toward the sect 
everywhere spoken against, that to be 
a Christian was considered a capital 
crime. And it will be noticed that not 
one of the historical writers of the New 
Testament writes under his own name. 

The editor, then, goes as far as he 
safely could toward identifying the 
author as John the Beloved, the bosom 
friend of Jesus, and declares him to be 
competent and trustworthy. Tradition 
assures us that John wrote his Gospel in 
ripe old age, when he had had ample op- 
portunity to put his beliefs to the test. 

What, then, has this close friend of 
the Lord Jesus — whose testimony as an 
eyewitness is received by his contempo- 



JOHN SUMS UP 83 

raries as beyond all question, who for 
threescore or more years had been put- 
ting his beliefs to the test — to say about 
the argument he himself has framed? 

He tells us that after the resurrection 
of Jesus from the dead, new light was 
thrown upon his dark saying, "Destroy 
this temple, and in three days I will 
raise it up." Whatever else Jesus may 
have had in mind, he referred to the 
"temple of his body"; and John says, 
"When therefore he was raised from the 
dead, his disciples remembered that he 
spake this; and they believed . . . the 
word which Jesus had said" (2. 19, 22) . 

It is not always easy, or even possible, 
to decide whether certain words are to 
be credited to John, or to some other 
speaker. Thus at the close of the con- 
versation with Nicodemus, we are not 
sure whether Jesus or John gives the 
well-known sentence, "For God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on him should not perish, but have 



84 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

eternal life" ; but in either case the bear- 
ing of the words on the conclusion of 
John's argument is clear (3. 16). 

We cannot fail to notice the fairness 
of John's argument. He does not by 
any means confine his account to things 
favorable to the claims of Jesus. He 
gives both sides. 

Thus, referring especially to the rais- 
ing of Lazarus, he says, "But though 
he had done so many signs before them, 
yet they believed not on him" (12. 37). 
And why not? Their own prophet, 
Isaiah, tells why. The trouble was not 
of the head, but of the heart. Blindness 
had happened to Israel, that judicial 
blindness which comes as the result and 
punishment of sin. 

"He hath blinded their eyes, and hard- 
ened their heart; 

Lest they should see with their eyes, 
and perceive with their heart; 

And should turn, 

And I should heal them" (John 12. 
40; Isa. 6. 10). 



JOHN SUMS UP 85 

They had sinned away their day of 
grace, and the things which belonged to 
their peace were hid from their eyes. 

The careful reader of John's Gospel 
can hardly miss other remarks of the 
evangelist himself, going to show that 
he had the utmost confidence in the con- 
clusion that Jesus is the Christ, the Son 
of God, and that those who believe in 
his name have eternal life. We offer 
but one more. 

An author often conceives the ideas 
of the introduction to his book last of 
all. It was so with John. We look, 
therefore, to the opening words of his 
Gospel for his ripest conclusion. 

He introduces him who is to be the 
subject of his book as the Logos. This 
was a term much in use by the theolo- 
gians of John's day to denote a manifes- 
tation of or from God. Philo used it 
to express God speaking or acting in 
time and space. In his use of the word 
Philo seems almost Christian. He 
speaks of the Logos as "The high 



86 THAT YE MAY BELIEVE 

priest and advocate who pleads the 
cause of sinful humanity before God," 
as "The first-born Son of God," as 
"The second God." 

John identifies this Logos, or Word,, 
with Jesus, who "became flesh and 
dwelt among us," to whom John the 
Baptist was bearing testimony; and also 
with the Word of God, through whom 
"all things were made that are made"; 
who was in the beginning with God. 
"AND THE WORD WAS GOD." 

This is the last word that need be 
said. It explains all the rest, the mar- 
velous life, the mighty signs, the won- 
derful words, the sublime self-sacrifice 
of Jesus. He was the Word, and the 
Word was God. 

He who believes in the name of Jesus 
as including all this, who so reverences 
him as to obey and follow him, and so 
trusts him as to accept him as Saviour, 
hath everlasting life. 



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